^, 



^\v 



'III. 



■IVh 



of 



llO-(v 



^* 



ri. 



li 



iricr 



' ''of 



^■%, tlie 

 '^^e, been 

 "St as i 



m 



ated tliis 



r settlers, 



' in Xeff 

 ind 1843 

 ict areas. 

 tlie Jail, 

 iy sealers, 

 .4Sj being 

 ) close to 

 on 'to tlie 



1827, so 

 its former 

 id become 

 the coast, 



liat 



into 'ff 





; of a^^°«" 



•. erupt"'" 

 3. 



I 



\ 



Ch. XXVIIL] 



THOSE OF NEW ZEALAND. 



83 



was previonsly deep watei^ for large masses are said to have 

 slid doAvn from tlie hills into the sea. The same writer 

 informs ns^ that in 1847;, the hull of a vessel was discovered 

 on the western coast of the South Island. It was lying 200 

 yards inland, and was suj^posedto be the ^Active/ which was 

 lost in 1814. A small tree was growing through its bottom, 

 and Mr. Taylor suggests that •the coast had risen^ so as to 

 cause the ocean to retire to a distance of 200 yards from the 

 old shore line, where the vessel had been stranded j but a 

 more precise investigation of the locality will be required 

 before we can feel sure that the vessel was not carried in by 

 a wave raised during the earthquake, for such waves have, 

 in modern times, left much larger ships high and dry in 

 the interior of Peru and some other countries."^ (See p. 157.) 

 The natives are said to have told our first settlers that they 

 might expect a great earthquake every seven years ; and 

 although such exact periodicity has by no means been veri- 

 fied, the average number of violent shocks in a quarter of a 

 century seems not to have fallen short of the estimate here 



referred to. 



In the course of the year 1856, I had an opportunity of 

 conversing in London with three gentlemen, all well qualified 



F 



as scientific observers, who were eye-witnesses of the tremen- 

 dous earthquake experienced in January of the preceding 



Ne 



These were, Mr. Edward Roberi 

 department ; Mr. Walter Mantell 



landed proprietor in the South 



Mr. Frederick A. Weld, a 

 Esland.f The earthquake 



the SE, of Port Nicholson 



Map 



occurred in the night of January 23, 1855, and was most 



w miles to 

 ; but the 

 the coast, 



and the whole area shaken of land and water is esti- 

 mated at 360,000 square miles, an area three times as large 

 as the British Isles. In the vicinity of Wellington, in the 

 North Island, a tract of land comprising 4,600 square miles 



shocks were felt by ships at sea 150 miles from 



^ Eev. E. Taylor, ' New Zealand and 

 its Inhabitants,' London, 1855. 



t This account was published by me 



in the EuUetin de la Soc. Geol. de 

 France, 1856, p. 661. 



G 2. 



